1: A nice Crosley with uncannily nice original paint that really polished up with a few applications of car wax. Someone had buggered up the chassis by chopping off the pilot lamp and as a result this had over-stressed one of the power resistors. A new pilot lamp was installed, the rest recapped and about 50% of the rotten wiring was replaced.

2:A nice Motorola -again, with good original paint that also polished up well.

Last night's job was this Crossley "Fiver". I really like these sets. They are kind of basic but must have been well-engineered as they work rather well. Someone in the past had done a sort of so-so job refinishing it and underneath were some freakishly long, dangling leads that I later re-dressed. I will probably replace one of the electrolytics that they had replaced as I don't like the way that looks.

In case you're wondering why the uptick in restorations, well the museum has our big auction in July and so the supply of sets needs to be "built" as we usually have around 200 sets in all.

Next up: This nice looking Remler. The quality and construction of this set is above and beyond most of the other national brands. Everything is simply more robust and even the back is screwed to the cabinet with carefully inserted solid brass threads. Even though its a 5 tube set its got a transformer. Even the pulleys for the dial string are nice solid brass. It was sort of dull and missing the knobs.

It was easy to overhaul.

I spent about an hour going over the case with Novus.

Also re-did this dinky little Emerson in a polystyrene case. The case was BADLY scratched up but again- about an hour of some good polishing and it came out ok.

I bought a Remler radio at the last CHRS event we attended, and it is unusually heavy. Does the museum have one of that model? If not, it seems it should stay, especially since Remler was a northern California manufacturer.

Remler actually had a surprisingly long history. They stopped making consumer radios in the early 50's but shifted their business to avionics and related equipment. They lasted right up until 1988.

Speaking of Remler, Here's another: Its a 1947 Remler that sadly appeared to have taken a fall and had some fractures in the front area. But as it was worth a try I did repair the cracks, sand it down and paint it, this time in a gloss black, which isn't super easy given any imperfections will show up right away. A special thanks to Jim from the museum on helping me fix a weird issue the tuning condenser was having.

Next up, and I know lots of people here will remark at how ugly this is, its my all-time favorite series from Motorola, their infamous 3-channel stereo.

These were Motorola's top of the line systems from the late 50's-early 60's. They are about the least fussy, more straightforward designed sets with a basic amp using a push-pull 6V6 and 12AX7 configuration per each channel and oddly enough, a 3DG4 rectifier: 10 tubes in all.

Working on these is a walk in the park. ALL of the capacitors except for the electrolytic are ceramic disc or orange drops. The only thing is that you've got to use terminal strips for the new caps as there's little vertical space available.

The tuner is not as easy to deal with: there's a pre-amp chassis that has to come off and then you can access the underside of the chassis.

Anyway, it has a HUGE 15 woofer, 2 10" mid-ranges and two tweeters.

Once its all warmed up it will make the concrete in the garage shake. Its just an ungodly amount of bass and the highs are really nice and crisp too. All in all, one of the better consoles of the era, and IMHO it sounds better than some of the fancy brands I've done.

Thanks for the front photo. Actually, I think it looks pretty good. I wouldn't mind having that in my living room. Once you crank it up, no one will be thinking about its looks. They will be admiring the sound.

Tom

_________________"A challenge to be met, rather than an obstacle to avoid." - Mr. Data

Well, I'd probably buy it for myself but I already have a few of these. This one is going to go up for sale, probably in another week or so.If it doesn't sell we'll use it as the outdoor sound system for the day at our upcoming July show. Whats amazing to me is that I took out all the tubes and they were all likely the originals that came with it. All with the same Motorola labels. ALL of them tested good. In fact of all these systems I've yet to have a tube go bad, and the one in my garage gets used every day for hours on end...

Heeeeere's another, probably for the auction.Stromberg Carlsen. It too had a crack in the case. That was repaired, sanded, and the case painted black, which goes well with the detachable front grill piece and knobs. It got a recap and is now good to go

Anyway, its what I'd call so-so quality but has an unusual feature for the time: Its actually stereo. Most sets I've seen like these are mono and if you wanted stereo you had to buy a decoder for FM. This one comes with two speakers and an output transformer for each with true stereo separation. I almost didn't get this one done because it uses a rare and expensive output tube: A ELL80 tube, which is basically two EL 95 tubes in one envelope. I bet that tube is driven HARD. Anyway the one in it was dead and given the cost of replacements would have meant the radio would net very little return for the museum. BUT... we had one in our supplies at the museum and I was able to complete the restoration, complete with built-in bluetooth too. It sounds pretty decent.

The 2nd radio is a large Olympic set with a giant bass speaker, a tweeter and two mid ranges. Its almost like this is that brand's competition to one of Telefunken's upper end models. I am a bit worried about whether this one will work: The output and the power transformer show signs of corrosion between the iron plates and they are both slightly bulging in areas. I hope I can get it up and going because I bet it would sound great.

Lastly, not a radio, but a bench vise. Its a 30's or 40's era Craftsman vice that was completely rusted solid. I let it soak for a week in rust removing compounds, cleaned and then painted it, and now its like new. A lot better than the crappy chinese vices. You can't go wrong with cast steel...